News

Hit Like A Girl 2015 Week 3 Winners Chosen From Germany, Poland, UK

The votes from the judges at Zildjian, and our Week 3 pro judge Debbie Knox-Hewson are in and the winners are an international group of Europeans and North Americans including:

OVER 18

Aaliyah Jay, (upper right) a multi-instrumentalist whose funky drumming style is sure to win fans. Also in the Over 18 category is Lindsay Artkop,(upper left) a Berklee student from Connecticut who shows her chops in a wide-ranging three minute assault

UNDER 18

German entrant Antonia (lower left) and Polish 16-year old Natalia (lower right) are this week's winners. Antonia says she dreamed of a drum kit but couldn't afford one until Mom inherited money. Well, the inheritance is paying off. Natalia shows a lot of pop style in her demo video and says her dream is to get to study in the US. Good dream.

Remember: All entrants have a shot at being a weekly winner each week, no matter which week they enter the contest.

PRIZES

This week's winners receive an 8" Custom A Splash, compliments of Zildjian, plus Evans snare head, Zildjian sticks, and Cympad foam pads. Prizes are sent at the conclusion of the contest.

We'd also like to thank sponsors for special prizes we'll be giving away in April to worthy entrants chosen by the judges including a week at the Musicians Institute Summer Shot (above) in Hollywood, Audix microphones, a Yamaha Drum throne and pedal, and tickets to see Hit Like A Girl spokesperson Didi Negron play with Amaluna. See all our sponsors here.

About Hit Like A Girl

Hit Like A Girl is a global online contests to highlight and promote girl and women drummers. Now in its fourth year, the 2015 contest is made possible by the contributions of key industry sponsors, and a global network of female drumming ambassadors. As the quantity, quality and influence of the female drumming community has grown in the drumset, world percussion, marching, concert and industry segments in the past few years, the Hit Like A Girl contest as well as other public awareness activities have been developed to celebrate, facilitate and accelerate this trend.

Schedule

The 2015 Hit Like A Girl Contest is open for entries until April 8, 2015. After that date is a fan voting period to choose additional finalists. Celebrity drummer judges will then choose the top winners in each age group. Winners will receive complete drum sets and other prizes. They will be announced in a live Drumchannel event on May 7, 2015.

Drum Channel 2.0

As part of its commitment to providing the drumming community with the ultimate online drum education experience, www.drumchannel.com is proud to announce the launch of Drum Channel 2.0.

"DC 2.0 is more than just a graphic redesign of the site," explains Drum Channel founder and CEO Don Lombardi. "It is a completely new, optimized version of the website that features faster navigation, a more streamlined interface and an expanded selection of downloadable audio and video content. With Drum Channel 2.0 drummers are able to find what they want to learn — and who they want to learn from — more quickly and more easily."

"Drumchannel content is organized in 3 basic categories where you will 'Learn It', 'Discuss It' and 'Play It'. You will 'Learn It' with over 700 Lessons in 5 learning centers: Technique, Independence, Creativity, Genre and Reading. Plus over 100 'Secrets From The Pros', 10 'Masterclasses' and Lesson Plans to help organize your study. You can 'Discuss It' during weekly live lessons, or send us a video to get 'Feedback' from a Pro. You 'Play It' with exclusive live recorded play-along tracks with studio musicians and you can practice in DC Woodshed classes."

"Although we're constantly upgrading and improving the site in order to provide today's drummers and drum teachers with the highest quality online education, Drum Channel 2.0 is an especially huge and exciting development," Don continues. "As always, every improvement to the site was made by drummers for drummers. So please check it out and let us know what you think."

Drum Channel is an education and entertainment company providing a wide variety of interactive drum education content, including www.drumchannel.com. The Drum Channel website features 100's of lessons, lesson plans and live events as well as Drum Channel's DVDs and Digital Video Downloads, available at http://www.drumchannel.com/store.

Twisted Sister Drummer A.J. Pero Dead Of Heart Attack

By Radim McCue

Published March 21, 2014

A.J. Pero, the drummer for the heavy-metal band Twisted Sister, died Friday at the age of 55. Pero apparently had a heart attack.

At the time of his death Pero was touring with Adrenaline Mob, the band he plays with between Twisted Sister tours. Apparently, band members tried to awaken him unsuccessfully Friday morning. He was declared dead at a hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York at 11 AM.

The early '80s were a crazy time, when the excesses of New Wave and the beginnings glam and hair metal combined to create perhaps the most visual period in popular music.Twisted Sister were at the center of the glam-rock revolution and A.J. Pero's shotgun backbeat was at the heart of Twisted Sister a band that was infamous for glam costumes and exaggerated makeup. Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider called Pero "the final piece in a band that would become an international sensation and one of the greatest live rock acts to ever hit the stage." Pero had joined the band in 1982 just before they had their first breakout hits "We're Not Gonna Take It," and "I Wanna Rock."

Hit Like A Girl Week 1 Winners Announced

By Radim McCue

Published March 17, 2014

The 2015 Hit Like A Girl Contest is off to a fast start with more than 120 entrants to date. The first weekly winners were drawn earlier this week by a judging team from sponsor Sabian cymbals, plus Didi Negron, the Cirque du Soleil drummer who is the 2015 contest spokesperson. The entry period is open until April 8, 2015. Check the full rules and how to enter here.

The contest features Weekly Winners until the close of the entry period in April. Each group of weekly winners takes home a splash cymbal, sticks, snare head, and other prizes (See prizes here.). And, weekly winners are automatically entered in the final judging round. After April 9 fans can vote for their favorites. On April 22 the fan votes will be counted and forty finalist videos-20 in each age group-are turned over to the celebrity drummer judges. The winners are announced in a live event on May 7, 2015.

Hit Like A Girl Makes Red Bull Tracks Available

By Radim McCue

Published March 17 2014

Red Bull Music has made tracks available from three of their outstanding bands: Beartooth, Blitz Kids, and New Beat Fund for the Hit Like A Girl Contest. [Ed. Note: DRUM! is a founder and sponsor of the contest.] The tracks are for contestants to use on a royalty-free basis when submitting their videos for the contest. Each Red Bull track is presented in three versions: 1) with drums but without a click track; 2) without drums but with a click track; and, 3) without drums and without a click track. Download the track you'd like to play along to below.

Additional tracks from Gregg Bissonette, Hudson Music/Tommy Igoe, and Drum Fun are available. They provide great play-along learning tools as well as entry tracks one can use without getting into copyright issues.